As you saw in the video, the librarians have created research guides to support student research in every subject. From the Library Website http://www.pcc.edu/library find the Research Guides link under Shortcuts. Then find the Biology research guide under Sciences. Look around at what’s available in the guide.

In this class you are going to be asked to find peer-reviewed journal articles (also sometimes called scholarly or academic articles) to support your research. First, you need to know what those are and how they’re different from other articles. Now you are going to take a look at two articles (only one of which is peer-reviewed) and pick out some of the characteristics of peer-reviewed articles.

Open the following two links in another browser tab:
1. https://bit.ly/bi101article
2. https://bit.ly/bi101articles (this one may ask you to login first with your MyPCC username and password)

Now, skim the articles (you don't have to read them!) to find things you notice are different about them. This could include things about the purpose of the article, the evidence, how it's structured, how it looks, how it's written, etc.

For example: at the end of the first article, I can see that the author is a Seattle-based science writer specializing in biology and the environment. In the second article, under the authors' names, I see that they both work at the Department of Food and Agricultural Marketing, Faculty of Organic Agricultural Sciences, University of Kassel, Germany, so they are university professors. So the expertise of the authors in the second article is definitely higher than the authors in the first.

Why should you care about peer-review as a college student? Peer-reviewed science is behind the designs of things we use in our everyday life and the technologies and health innovations that keep us safe and healthy. Peer review is the process that helps to assure the quality of the scientific information on which we base many important decisions.

For example, we have all heard a lot of information about the coronavirus, but some of it is not true. For example, I heard that drinking water every 15 minutes will keep you from getting sick with the coronavirus which is not actually supported by any scientific research. We want our doctors to make the best decisions if we or our loved ones get infected with COVID-19 and it is through the process of peer review (where the research has first been examined by experts) that doctors will learn more definitively how the coronavirus can best be treated.

Check out this two-minute video about why scientific research matters and the following 50-second video on why peer-review matters for non-experts like us.

Now, you're going to find some peer-reviewed articles yourself through two Library Databases. If you already have a topic selected for a research project in your class, you can use that in your searching. If not, you can use one of the following topics:

*Does caffeine affect memory or attention?
*What is more effective, compost or artificial fertilizer?
*How does sleep deprivation impact memory?
*Does physical exercise affect memory or attention?
*Are genetically-modified crops safe?
*Is in-vitro meat a sustainable alternative to traditional meat production?
*Is hydroponic growing the answer to our dwindling water supply?
*Will getting people to embrace a vegetarian diet decrease our reliance on fossil fuels?

When you search, be sure to only use the fewest, most important keywords as the more keywords you enter, the fewer results you'll get.

For example, if I was looking for articles about how sleep deprivation impacts memory, I would just put in the terms sleep deprivation memory. Or I might even just try sleep memory.

If I was looking at the sustainability of in-vitro meat as an alternative to traditional meat production, I would search using the terms in-vitro meat sustainability. Or in-vitro meat alternative. Or in-vitro meat sustainable.

The Library’s article search on the front page of the library website http://www.pcc.edu/library searches our two largest multidisciplinary library databases, Academic Search Premier and MasterFILE Premier. They contain not just scholarly articles, but also magazine and newspaper articles written for a non-expert audience. Before you search, be sure to click on the Articles tab, or you'll find yourself searching for books and videos.To limit your search to just peer-reviewed articles, you will want to check the box for Peer Reviewed on the front page (shown below).

Watch this four-minute video on finding articles through the library to see how our library article search works and how to search it.

Now you're ready to start searching on your own in the Library's article search. When you search, be sure to check the box that limits your search to scholarly peer-reviewed articles.

Try different combinations of keywords and see how they change your results list. When you find articles that look useful, email them to yourself so you'll have the article as well as the formatted citation without having to go back into the database again.

The Biological Sciences Database is our only database in which every article is from a biology journal or conference. When you search, be sure to check the box for Peer reviewed, so you'll only see peer reviewed articles. You can access the database from the front page of the Biology Research Guide or on the Library Databases page https://www.pcc.edu/library/databases/

Once you find an article that looks useful, click on the title. On that page, you'll see an abstract that describes what the article is about. If it looks useful, you can email the article to yourself along with the with citation. There is also a Cite button which will provide the citation in a variety of formats, including APA and CSE.

Now you're ready to start searching on your own in the Biological Sciences Database (which you'll find either on the front page of the Biology Research Guide or on the Library Databases page https://www.pcc.edu/library/databases/. When you search, be sure to check the box that limits your search to scholarly peer-reviewed articles.

Try different combinations of keywords and see how they change your results list. When you find articles that look useful, email them to yourself so you'll have the article as well as the formatted citation without having to go back into the database again.

When you submit this form, you will receive a copy of your responses via email and will also have the option to edit your responses.